When Twilight Fades
by ladyofbree
Summary: Sam and Elanor share a moment together talking about Frodo and his passing over the sea when Sam tells Elanor that he too may one day sail away (based upon Tolkien's unpublished Epilogue to LOTR).


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When Twilight Fades

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"The light is fading Elanor. But it won't go out yet. It won't ever go quite out, I think now, since I have you to talk to…"

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Sam speaking to Elanor in the Epilogue to The Lord of the Rings

A gentle wind was upon the air as a fire burned steadily within the hearth in the study at Bag End. A desk rested near the wall next to the fireplace and above it a small round window looked out over the starlit night. The almost silent stir of feet upon the floor echoed along the hall and soon a figure came through the door and into the study shadowed by the light of a candle within their hand. It was Sam. A deep sigh passed over his lips as he came to the desk setting his candle into a small silver cup covered in drippings of wax hardened from sleepless nights long past. Sam brought himself up into the chair and looked to the many papers resting over the desk and on the floor nearby. He took a handful of papers up from the desk and beneath them lay a rather large book with deep red leather covers. Sam opened the cover slowly bringing it open towards the end. He drew his hand along the elegant letters upon the page recalling memories of old. A smile fell upon his lips as his eyes grew wet with tears before he turned the page away to his own written words scrawled by a hand less regal for the letters were thick and nearly not as grand. Sam then took a quill up into his hand and pulled forth a small glass bottle of ink buried under a mound of crumpled paper from written words that were tossed aside. He took in a deep breath and slowly dipped his quill into the black liquid within the bottle before bringing his hand to the paper before him. The light of the fire shown upon his face as his hand came across the paper leaving his own account of an adventure that had come to pass so many years before. 

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Long into the night Sam sat before the desk in the study lost within his writing as the fire faded slowly at his side. All was silent and not a sound was to be heard in all the Shire until the soft fall of footsteps came along the hall stopping before the open door of the study. Sam turned away from his writing and there stood his daughter Elanor with a tender smile upon her face.

"What are you doing here within the study at this hour?" She said quietly as she came to Sam's side. "You said you were going to rest some time ago yet I find you here writing to no end by the light of the fading fire."

"That I did." Sam replied softly stopping for a moment in his writing. "But my mind has seemed to wander once more. When I am writing it seems I am there Elanor, in those days I remember time and time again, then it is not so sad." Sam said with a sigh. He then took to his work once more quickly scribbling down a few more words before they escaped his memory. Elanor took a seat next to the fire placing a few more logs into the shallow flames. For some time she sat watching her father as his hand rested against his cheek while his honey brown curls already flecked with grey fell along his brow. He took in a deep breath and Elanor came up from her chair to her father's side placing her hand over his own.

"Do not write any more tonight." Elanor whispered. "I just want to sit for a bit. You and I here together before the fire." Elanor said as she took the quill from his hand. "Tell me about Lórien father. Does my flower still grow there?"

Sam smiled for he knew that Elanor only spoke of her flower when she knew that her father too was longing to see things he had not for some time.

"Yes Elanor dear." Sam said softly. "Your flower grows there still. And I don't doubt it will be there forever, long after you and I have both left this world." 

"Will the time ever come when I can see it for myself father?" Elanor said softly.

"Perhaps." Sam replied with a smile. "But even now you seem to remember it though you have never seen it."

"I know." Elanor sighed. "But that is not the same as seeing it as you did father. Even in your stories it seems so real like I was really there but I want to feel the golden petals of my flower upon my skin and the soft green grass beneath my feet. I want to see Lórien and hear the elves singing with their voices like bells upon the wind." Sam then grew silent and took his glance towards the open window overlooking the western garden of Bag End. He closed his eyes and sighed deeply and at that moment it seemed he could hear the gentle rush of the sea upon the shores of Middle Earth. Sam opened his eyes slowly and he turned to Elanor trying to push a smile past his quivering lips. Elanor quickly took her fathers hand up into her own and held it tightly as she reached her other hand to his cheek glowing with the light of the fire beside them.

"It seems we both long for something we can not see." Elanor whispered as she dried away a single tear that began to fall along her father's cheek.

"Oh Ellie." Sam replied softly. "The time may come sooner than you think when you shall see your flower within the grass of Lórien. You will hear the elves sing my dear I promise you that." 

"But what of you father?" Elanor said quietly. "You shall never see what you miss most of all."

"One day I may my dear." Sam whispered. 

"What do you mean?" Elanor replied puzzled. She then grew silent and watched as her father took in a deep breath before looking out the window once more.

"I've never spoken word of this to anyone." Sam whispered turning back to Elanor. "Not even to mother Rose. You must promise me Ellie that what I say will not leave this room."

"I promise." Elanor whispered taking Sam's brown hand into her own small dainty palm. Sam smiled and drew his hand along Elanor's cheek shadowed in the amber glow of the fire that burned along their side.

"Before Frodo sailed over the sea he said my time may come." Sam replied with a sigh. "I do not think we have said goodbye forever Elanor, for one day I too may sail over the sea." A deep silence filled the room and Elanor looked to her father with tears in her eyes. Sam breathed in deeply and reached his hand to her blushed cheeks catching the tears as they fell from her soft blue eyes. Elanor took his hand tightly into her own and held it against her cheek as she closed her eyes tightly. 

"I can not part with you father like Arwen did with Lord Elrond." Elanor said softly through her tears. 

"Ellie dear the time will not come any day soon." Sam replied. "There is so much here for me now, more than I ever wished for in all my years. I have many treasures here that I can not leave so easily." Elanor opened her eyes slowly and she looked to her father with a gentle smile upon her face as she brushed the tears away from her eyes.

"I shall miss you when you have gone." Elanor whispered.

"And I you." Sam replied. "All of you. But you will go on and your hearts will mend with time." Sam said with a sigh. He then grew silent as he turned back to the Red Book laying open upon the desk.

"Frodo told me once that I can not always be torn in two. Just as you Ellie my dear. You can not dwell on the thought of me leaving for you must be one and whole. Many years shall pass before that day will come so you should not think of it now. You will have so much to enjoy even when I am no longer here."

"Will I father?" Elanor said softly.

"That you will." Sam replied with a smile. Elanor then grew silent and looked out the window to the stars shimmering brightly within the night.

"I am so glad Frodo saw me father." Elanor whispered. "But I only wish I could remember seeing him."

"Ah, but you were young my dear." Sam replied. "Deep within I wish he could see the beauty that has grown before my own eyes that holds the name of the flower he had chosen for you."

"Frodo chose my name?" Elanor said with a look of wonder upon her face.

"He did." Sam replied softly. "One could not come to my or your mother's mind and so I went to him and with a bit of thinking he gave me the name of Elanor. The beautiful golden star flowers in the grass of Lothlórien."

"I never knew." Elanor whispered. "Why did you not tell me before father?"

"I thought I had." Sam said with a smile as he shook his head gently from side to side. "But then again my mind seems to falter time and again as I grow older. But now you know and my heart is happy that he named you my dear Ellie before he sailed over the sea."

"So am I." Elanor replied smiling. "He meant a lot to you father and though I never remember him he will always mean something to me." The fire within the study then began to fade and Sam took in a deep breath as Elanor sat before him looking down to her hands as they lay within her lap.

"He would have liked to know that he means so much to you." Sam replied. "No one in the Shire really seemed to appreciate Frodo for all that he had done other than myself and his cousins."

"That is such a pity." Elanor said quietly. "Even I am thankful for all he has done."

"Aye, it is a pity." Sam replied. "More honor seems to have been given to Merry and Pippin but you and I together will make up for all those who have forgotten him." Elanor smiled brightly and took Sam's hand giving it a gentle squeeze. He too smiled and then looked to the evening sky through the window overlooking the garden as it began to lighten with the coming morn.

"But alas." Sam whispered. "The twilight has begun to fade for we have kept each other up long through the night once more. It is time that even a young lass of fifteen find her bed and get a few hours of rest before mother Rose wakes." Sam said placing his hand over Elanor's. Elanor then stood to her feet and leaned towards her father leaving a kiss upon his brow as she whispered goodnight. Quietly she passed out of the room and Sam took in a deep breath closing his eyes and at that moment the soft quiet sigh and murmur of the sea filled his ears as it rose and fell upon the shores of Middle Earth.


End file.
